Large temporary storage containers are frequently needed in certain industries for the transportation and storage of large quantities of fluids. Specifically, in the oil and gas industry, and particularly for fracturing operations, there has been an increasing need for larger volumes of fracturing fluids (up to 6000-7000 m3) to be available at a well site for use during a well fracturing operation over several days. Presently, steel tanks that are capable of holding in the order of 60 m3 of fluid are used for storing fracturing fluids at oil well sites. The disadvantage of steel tanks is their limited capacity and the space they require for transportation, as generally only two steel tanks can be transported on a single truck trailer bed. Thus, a single truck trailer can transport a water storage system capable of holding only 120 m3 of fluid.
As flexible storage bags can be collapsed, when empty they require significantly less space during transportation. However, in the past they have been difficult to handle and typically require a large amount of manual labor for set-up and dismantling. In addition, such bag systems are particularly prone to malfunction in various deployments such as remote oil well sites as a result of the climate and terrain such systems are subjected to. Accordingly, there has been a need for improved systems for transporting and storing large volumes of fluid (particularly water) at a well site that also minimizes the risk of malfunction. In particular, there has been a need for improved flexible bag systems that increase the overall efficiency of transportation and storage for significantly larger volume bag systems for use at oil wells and for fracturing operations.
A review of the prior art reveals that flexible collapsible storage bags are well-known in industrial and military applications for the storage of fluids. For example, various systems have been described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,915,097; U.S. Pat. No. 2,851,075; U.S. Pat. No. 2,973,293; U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,508; U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,793; U.S. Pat. No. 6,726,052; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,213,970.